A Democracy Crisis: Flint Water Crisis and Deplorable Condition of Detroit Schools

Darnell Earley, the man who “emergency managed” the city of Flint, Michigan, into a new water system that has poisoned thousands of children, is now emergency managing the Detroit schools where threats to the health and safety of children and staff have been exposed. This poses a serious problem of credibility for Governor Snyder. Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter with the ACLU, focuses on emergency management and its effects on democracy. In an interview with Amy Goodman, he discusses the ways in which emergency management and democracy do not easily co-exist. In emergency management, he says, the manager is given “extreme unchecked authority.”

They were given the ability to come in, clean up the problems, and get out. And so there was an 18-month time limit put on their terms. Except that this governor is exploiting what amounts to a loophole in that law. So what happens is that these emergency managers serve for 17 months and 29 days, and the day before their term expires, they resign. A new emergency manager is put in place, and the clock starts ticking all over again. And they just shuffle them from one place to another. So Earley goes from Flint to run DPS. And it just perpetuates this control. It can go on, really, forever, if they want it to, denying people of their democratically elected representation, because the school board, which has been fighting emergency management every step of the way, gets completely marginalized. They have zero authority whatsoever. And that goes to the heart of the problem of this law. It eliminates the democratic checks and balances that make a democracy functional.

NPQ has been following the situation unfolding in Detroit after public school teachers took to social media and the streets to protest what many consider deplorable building conditions. As a consequence of their protests, which involved mass absences on the part of teachers in the last two weeks, otherwise known as “sick-outs,” Detroit schools have been forced to stay closed a number of days during the week, leaving parents scrambling to manage their children. In response, the school district has filed a lawsuit asking for a restraining order and temporary injunction to forcibly stop the “sick outs.”

The lawsuit is addressed against the Detroit Federation of Teachers, interim teachers’ union president Ivy Bailey, and 23 individual Detroit public school teachers.

“It is regrettable that the Detroit Public Schools seeks to punish those who speak out about the deplorable conditions in our schools,” Bailey said. “It would be so much more productive to actually do something to fix Detroit schools rather than file restraining orders against those who expose the miserable conditions.”

“There were, however, nine district schools that stayed open today. We appreciate the teachers and staff at those schools for being in their classrooms and ensuring that their students are learning today.”

With the serious health concerns of neighboring Flint’s water system drawing so much attention, last week’s “sick out” made headlines when it drew attention to the seriously deficient conditions of Detroit’s school buildings. Speakers at a rally described the schools with such problems as “mold, leaky ceilings, busted windows, rodents, roaches, lack of heat and standing water.” The aggrieved faculty members were not shy in posting pictures to social media depicting the conditions under which they were teaching—and, consequently, students were trying to learn.

Despite the manifest health hazards, no quick fix seems to be in sight, and the school district doesn’t seem to have much of an explanation for the disrepair. However, as readers may remember, Detroit is only barely coming out of its bankruptcy from several years ago, and the school district is billions of dollars in debt. The bureaucratic labyrinth and lack of clear leadership reflects the complexity of a district which has been under state management for years, has a growing financial problem and little clear direction for a solution.

But plans to reorganize Detroit’s public schools and increase funding continue to be stalled in the state’s legislature. A new proposal was introduced last week, and Gov. Rick Snyder urged legislators to move forward quickly; however, there is strong opposition to the bills as written because they do not include a prompt end to state control and a return of responsibility to the elected school board. While these wheels move slowly and deliberately, it’s the children and their teachers who will be trying to learn—and hoping to not get sick.—Martin Levine and Shafaq Hasan

Martin Levine is a Principal at Levine Partners LLP, a consulting group focusing on organizational change and improvement, realigning service system to allow them to be more responsive and effective.
Prior to forming Levine Partners, Mr. Levine served the CEO of JCC Chicago creating a purpose driven organization, continuously realigning service and management systems to responsively and effectively fulfill JCC Chicago’s mission.
Over the past 35 years Mr. Levine made major contributions to the transformation of JCC Chicago to its present position as a pre-eminent JCC in North America. Mr. Levine focused on strengthening the JCC’s effectiveness as a Jewish Community Building and Jewish Educational organization dedicated to “Bringing Jewish Values to Life” in all aspects of JCC programs and services.
Mr. Levine was been responsible for the development of new facilities as part of JCC Chicago’s response to the changing demography of the Metropolitan Jewish Community. In addition, Mr. Levine had responsibility for guiding the Chicago JCC’s integration of its service and business strategies into a holistic approach.
In addition to his JCC responsibilities, Mr. Levine served as a consultant on organizational change and improvement to school districts and community organizations.
Mr. Levine has published several articles on change and has presented at numerous conferences on this subject.
Mr. Levine held membership in many professional organizations including the Association of Jewish Center Professionals (Board member), Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups, Association for Quality and Participation, and the Future Search Alliance.
A native of New York City, Mr. Levine is a graduate of City College of New York (BS in Biology) and Columbia University (MSW). He has trained with the Future Search and the Deming Institute.
Mr. Levine served as President of the Gan Project, an organization committed to engaging communities in locally and ethically produced food.

Shafaq Hasan is a Community Builder at NPQ. She is a graduate of Brandeis University where she majored in Art History and spent most of her time working in the office of the student newspaper as the Opinions editor, and later, as an Associate editor. As an undergraduate, she was also a research assistant for the Justice Brandeis Law Project at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism from 2011 to 2014.